Machine for cutting ribbed fabrics



N0. B|6.280. Patented Dec. 20, I898.

C. F, &. H. F. ADAMS MACHINE FOR CUTTING RIBBED FABRICS.

Applica ion filed Mar. 18, 1898.

(N0 moduli CZQW/ea Z 24dam a/ 16 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. ADAMS AND HENRY F. ADAMS, OF READING, PENNSYLVANIA.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING RIBBED FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 616,280, dated December 20, 1898.

Application filed March 18 1898. Serial No. 674,334. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that we, CHARLES F. ADAMS and HENRY F. ADAMS, citizens of the United States, residing at Reading, in the county of Berks and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Cutting Ribbed Fabrics; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to improvements in machines for cutting ribbed fabrics, and is particularly intended as an improvement on Patent No. 572,094, issued to us December 1,-

The above patent relates to an improved form of machine for cutting ribbed fabrics and adapted especially for operating upon stocking tops or legs to separate each top successively from the connected series in which they are commonly delivered from the knitting machines. This class of stocking is formed with one or more welts near the upper end, and our machine is particularly adapted to operate upon such tops, an automatic feeding mechanism being provided to engage these welts in such a manner as to insure the regular and uniform delivery of each top successively to thecutting mechanism, the object and effect of the improved construction being to save labor, insure regular work, and avoid waste of material. In the present construction we have improved this machine in a number of details of construction, which improvements are fully described in the following specification and clearly shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a cross-section of the bed of the machine, showing the feeding-carriage in elevation. Fig. 2 is an end view, and Fig. 3 a side view, of the feeder end of the carriage, enlarged.

The present invention is confined to improvements on the feeding-carriage O. In the patent above cited said carriage 0 travels in the upper part of the guideway upon flanges c, which ride in grooves b. The forward end of the carriage is provided with the feeding device especially adapted to operate upon the tops of stockings. Itis in reference to this feeding device, together with other details to be described later on, that the present invention relates.

In the present construction the feeding device is adjusted automatically, the lower feeder 0 being rigidly fixed in the carriage, and the upper feeder c is pivotally hung on the end of the carriage. The upper feeder c is provided with ears a on its lower end, between which is pivotally mounted a swinging shoe E. This shoe, in fact, is the feeder proper and is held in approximate position by means of a hook e engaging a pin e on the feeder. This shoe will adjust itself automatically to the varied thicknesses of material to be operated upon, and need not be regulated by hand to engage different thicknesses, as heretofore. Y

In the present construction we have dispensed with the feeding-finger 6 shown in the patent above mentioned and have substituted therefor a roller R, mounted in a frame F beneath the carriage, which frame is pivoted at its rear end to the rear end of the carriage and is backed by a spring f, adapted to present the roller R, .which is mounted in the free end of the frame F, to the surface of the stocking-tops with just sufficient pressure to hold them in position. This frame F is capable of being raised, lifting the rollerfree from contact with the stocking-top by means of a lever L, pivotally connected to the top of the carriage and having its lower end engaging the frame F, in which the roller is mounted. The lever L in the action of raising the frame F will at the same time compress the lever L just beneath it and arranged to raise the upper feeder 0, carryin g the shoe E, the arrangement being such that either the levers may be operated together or the lever L independently.

By the present construction we make the feeding device thoroughly automatic, neither the feeders nor tension-roller requiring any adjustment to adapt them to different mate rials.

Having thus fully described the present invent-ion, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a machine for cutting ribbed fabrics, a feed-carriage having a fixed lower feeder c, a pivoted upper feeder 0 having an automatically-ad j usting shoe E pivoted theret0,adapted to adjust itself with relation to the lower In testimony whereof We afliX our signafeeder, the tension-roller Rmounted beneath tures in presence of two Witnesses.

the carriage and backed by a spring, a lever 1 mounted on the carriage and adapted to raise CHARLES ADAMS T r u p 7 5 said roller, and a supplemental lever L adapt- R1 ADAMS ed to be operated by said lever L and to raise \Vitnesses: the upper feeder c, all substantially as and ED. A. KELLY,

for the purpose set forth. J. FRED. HARTGEN. 

